Thursday, January 08, 2009

This is so bad, I really don't even have words to describe it. During the second quarter, Oklahoma got a first down and goal at the 10 yard line. Well Thom Brennaman got confused at some point and began calling 2nd down as 3rd down, which in turn led to 3rd down down being called as 4th. The worst part though is he and booth partner, Charles Davis, both began yelling for Oklahoma to go for it on 4th down (actually 3rd) that neither was even ready for the Sooners actually going for it on the real 4th down. Here's the clip....

I poke a lot of fun at FOX's Bowl production, but there are literally 25 or so people involved in the broadcast. Someone please yell the f'ing down to these asshats! It says it right there on the damn screen you two!!!

I've never been so glad for ESPN to take something over, and I'm dreading FOX's final BCS offering next year.

T-hom & the Mangina are the "voices" of the BTN, a channel a slight step above a regional broadcast, and they're calling the Orange Bowl & the Mythical National Championship game? It's not like Raycom's Dave, Dave & Dave Crew got to call the Sugar Bowl. These two should stick to calling games at their level, like Coastal Carolina-Penn State & Illinois-Northwestern.

Look, sometimes the production staff is so busy doing its own stuff that they can't always listen to or correct the talent. And while there is usually a spotter in the booth with the talent, s/he is busy identifying backs and wideouts. The talent is responsible for getting the basic facts right, such as downs. So yeah, I basically just took 100 words to say Brennaman f'ed that up.

But I don't think Thom was too far off on his Tebowner tonight. Don't you think that maybe some of this Tebow love is actually justified? If Tebow stunk it up out there and Brennaman was still waxing poetic, then there's a problem. However, Tebow EARNED his hype tonight.

Until tonight, I was among the people who wanted everyone to shut the f--- up about Tebow-Jesus. But after chillaxing and keeping an open mind for a second, I realized he just has this aura that makes everyone around him think, "Yeah, we CAN do this." And he actually backs up his confidence with actual RESULTS. Instead of putting down a guy who actually succeeds, let's embrace one for a change.

this was the most disgraceful broadcast i have ever seen. DID FOX REALLY SHOW A CLOCK TO COUNT-UP THE SECONDS BETWEEN OKLAHOMA'S PLAYS? are you kidding me? you know, there is actually something, WHICH IS RELEVANT TO THE GAME, that displays the same information, only in reverse. it's called the play clock, and they didn't show it once unless it got down to about 4 seconds. WOW! did you see that, Oklahoma got to the line of scrimmage in 9 seconds! they are moving at break-neck speed! oh, they're going to check the sideline, clock is now at 26, hmm, maybe we should take this off.

it was the most inane thing i had ever seen, and it never worked for them, since OK never seemed to "hurry up" when fox thought they would.

also, thanks to fox for explaining the all-too-foreign rules of college football and it's timing. are they seriously telling us the differences between it and the pros? i know your channel doesn't handle the ncaa a lot, but do we seriously need to be told that the clock is briefly stopped for a first down?

the entire night was tedious and pathetic, and i have a new found appreciation for espn.

I attended the 3D broadcast of the game in Bradenton, Florida. I think you can guess on your own who most people favored. There happened to be 4 theatres there showing the game; two were for people that were drinking and the other two were for the sober ones; I was in the latter as I wasn’t going to drink and then drive a long ways back home.

The important thing to note is that, as I only found out a few days ago, they had a completely different production crew there. I don’t believe it was anyone from Fox on the production side, although during the game I was made to wonder… besides the different camera angles, I did NOT have to listen to Thom and Charles announce the game. Judging by the 684 post thread I just read, I am very thankful of that. Instead, it was Kenny Albert and Tim Ryan. Sure, they made superfluous references to 3D that weren’t needed as, hey, asshats, we realize the game is in 3D… we’re watching it now, you idiots… and at times they clearly acted like they weren’t prepared for the game like they should have been. But, often you didn’t even hear them. Instead you heard the ambient sounds from the game, such as the players, fans, and yeah, the band. There weren’t too many band shots with that crew, either, but however there was more than a few shots of the Gator cheerleaders; not that I’m complaining about that.

Sad to say, there were some EPIC FAILS with the presentation. A few times, entire plays were missed as either they were totally not on the ball or they were showing a replay of the previous play. Then, and I swear this is true, in this graphics-lite presentation, we had to rely on the announcers most of the time to tell us the time on the game clock, as it was not until the end of the THIRD QUARTER that the time was displayed at all on the screen. Then, after that it was only shown when they had a large graphic up saying what the score was, so it was a handful of times in the last quarter. And you can forget about the gameclock as you only saw it during certain camera angles before a play, and that was it.

Even more epic than that, though, was a problem that may have been only at my theatre, or it was at all of them. We put on our glasses to watch the pregame (which itself was filled with a plethora of glitches) and we noticed that the picture looked horrible and not really 3D at all. Someone from another theatre walks in and tells us that the picture is perfect… if you turn your 3D glasses upside down! No kidding. No matter the situation, talk about an embarrassing gaffe… although not as bad as the video in this post. At least these announcers never lost track of downs, although with 9 minutes left it was Albert, I believe, who was carping then about how the Gators should be killing the clock. Remember, 9 minutes left, they were only up by three. Isn’t it a little early to be calling for that?

Despite all the gaffes, I’m glad I made the drive and paid 20 bucks (and paid movie theatre prices for concessions) as when there weren’t brief focus problems, the picture looked crystal clear and the 3D was almost jaw-dropping. The sound was also perfect.

I can confirm one of the guys-after a run up the middle-said something that sounded like, "He took it up the A-hole", but I thought it was more "8 hole" than "A-hole". I don't know what "8 hole" is, either, but unless he was talking ultra-technical football terminology that only those playing in the NCAA know about...

The only other thing I can say in this way too wordy post is that it was interesting at times to see different things with this broadcast, such as the coaches calling signals, or in one case, a great moment, when a Gators player was injured and being helped to the sideline. He stopped walking to smack talk an Oklahoma player before continuing his journey to the bench!

GMAFB. They didn't need to show his whiny look-at-me Ole' Miss postgame "I'll try harder than anyone else, sniff sniff" presser. Brenneman actually said "you'll be a better man after having spent 10-15 minutes with him." The "that might be the first thing wrong he's ever done." comment was so over the top I almost puked.Tebow's had a great career. Off the field, he's stayed out of trouble and done charitable things...good, no great for him. But the over the top fellating by the media, capped by last night's embarrassment, absolutely ruins the football experience for those who want a balanced and indepth perspective of the game.Last night was simply awful.

"But I don't think Thom was too far off on his Tebowner tonight. Don't you think that maybe some of this Tebow love is actually justified? If Tebow stunk it up out there and Brennaman was still waxing poetic, then there's a problem. However, Tebow EARNED his hype tonight.

Until tonight, I was among the people who wanted everyone to shut the f--- up about Tebow-Jesus. But after chillaxing and keeping an open mind for a second, I realized he just has this aura that makes everyone around him think, "Yeah, we CAN do this." And he actually backs up his confidence with actual RESULTS. Instead of putting down a guy who actually succeeds, let's embrace one for a change."

After the OU-Boise State fiasco, I posted a comment that said Charles Davis was supremely incompetent and completely unprepared for the game.

Either Spencer Tillman or someone posing as Spencer Tillman chastised me because I did not understand how much effort Davis put in to for preparing the game.

And, he is right. I have no idea how much effort it takes for Charles Davis to be so supremely stupid. He is the worse color analysis on the planet. Even OJ Simpson in the Monday Night Football booth back when MNF aired on ABC was better than Davis.

If president-elect Barak Obama really wants to help college football fans, then his administration, working through the FCC, must permanently bar Davis ever using a microphone for any reason. His analysis literally causes listeners to lose at least 30 IQ points.

Of course, you have to wonder why the wunderkinds at Fox keep Davis around? I am going for laughs. I bet at their annual confab for affiliates, they show a Davis highlight reel. It leaves station managers howling. Why has such a thing not appeared on YouTube?

My favorite part of the broadcast was the split screen with the offensive coordinator, the sidelines and Bradford. With Davis explaining us how Oklahoma gets its plays in as if they had some radically new technology or method...it was so fuckin' annoying.

But I did find it humorous that every time they brought out the OU Snap Count clock...OU would look to the sidelines and take a long time. But whenever they snapped it quick, Fox was unprepared and missed the start of more than a few plays.

An absolute embarassment in every sense of the word, from the announcers to the production. As was the Fiesta Bowl.

Only the Sugar Bowl gets a pass because Kenny Albert & Daryl Johnston were the only pair that seemed to understand the college game, know the in's and out's of both teams and geninuely added to the game. Well, maybe not added, but they didn't take away from it.

Not helping out Thom and Charles, who were both awful, was the first half referee work of Ron Cherry, who was really vague and misleading, which confused the easily confused Thom and Charles (saying a problem with the clock was a play under review, throwing a false start flag even though the quarter had been over for a few seconds and not really explaining it).

An awful broadcast. I thought Danielson was in love with Tebow, but Thom took it to a new level.

Regarding FOX's announcing crews, I didn't Kenny and the Moose this year, but I actually thought Vasgersian wasn't that bad. He doesn't bring anything to the table, but he's not awful. Summerall, as ancient as he is, beats down Thom and Davis easily.

I can't believe that this 2 (Brenemann and Davis) Ddidn't knoow what down it was on a crusial goaline play. Excuse me guys, why don't you guys look at your own monitors to see that on your Fox Box it had the right down adn distance? Or why didn't someone in that production truck, tell this guys that its 2nd and goal not 3rd and goal? So, your announicng team doesn't look like a couple of dopes. No wander why Thom Brenemann has been passed over by Joe Bcuck on Baseball and Football telecast, becasue you can say wahtever you want about Buck's work, but at leat he knows the down and distance in a Football telecast. Somthing you can't say about Brenemann.

Easily one of the worst broadcasts of any championship game/series. Ever.

Thank goodness that at least ESPN/ABC gets the national championship game next season. Then in 2 seasons, we'll be done with Fox forever. Although, I must say, I will miss all of those cheerleader shots....

i am so glad i muted FOX in favor of the gator announcers on the local radio station. they knew all about the gators, and didn't treat the listeners like they knew next to nothing about college football. they were biased for the gators, but it was more of a homerism, which can be annoying if you don't like the team, than slurping, which is almost always annoying. the 5 second radio to tv delay and slight interference was annoying, but from all of the comments of the FOX commentators, it was worth it.